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IT had been consigned to the bottom of the bread bin but it’s back from the dead – and baked to perfection.

The Birmingham Close Notched Cottage Loaf, one of the city’s forgotten culinary treasures, has returned, thanks to lecturers at University College Birmingham, the old College of Food.

Based on an ancient Roman style of bread-making, the fabled loaf took off in popularity during the Industrial Revolution and peaked in the early-20th century.

The loaf, similar to a standard cottage, features scores and scores of notches that help to give it a superior crust and flavour but the bread’s strength also led to its downfall.

The intricate notching technique took too much time and the loaf was ditched when mass production took off during the 1940s.

Now, bakery lecturers at the college in Paradise Circus have rediscovered the recipe and will officially unveil the revamped Brummie Close Notched Cottage Loaf at next month’s Taste of Birmingham food festival. Lecturer Ross Jones, a former college student, will perform bread-making demonstrations at the Heart of England Fine Foods stand during Taste, which runs from July 9-12 in Cannon Hill Park.

Ross’s colleague, veteran bakery lecturer Cyril Scorse, first saw the old recipe, in a book published in the 1890s, when he was working as an apprentice.

He stumbled across it again recently when he was looking to expand the range of breads produced by the college’s students.

Cyril has a couple of theories as to why the Brummie cottage loaf acquired its trademark close notching.

He says: “One is that it helps you get a far nicer crust, or more crust, because you are increasing the surface area of the crust which, in turn, would give a nicer eating feel.

“Also, it is a known fact that the more notches you have on a cottage loaf, the more stable it is in the oven. The top is less likely to fall over, so you get a much nicer shape of loaf. The Birmingham cottage loaf would always look much more appealing to the customer and, with the amount of crust, it would be much more appetising.

“You get a crustier crust that gets your teeth working better and a loaf that is more pleasing to the eye. I always maintain that the customer buys first with their eye and then with the tongue.”

The cottage loaf was traditionally favoured by farming communities as a “space-saving” bread. Their rudimentary ovens tended to have limited width and the cottage loaf was effectively two loaves, one sitting on top of the other, taking full advantage of the height of the ovens.

Cyril has come across references to cottage loaves in Roman times and English farmers’ wives and housewives later made the style their own.

“The dough would have been made using local flour, perhaps from Sarehole Mill in Hall Green, Berkswell windmill or even Avoncroft near Bromsgrove,” says Cyril. “And of course you had the salt, water and fat. Years ago, the fat would have been lard and they had a ready supply from the pig farmers just down the road in the Black Country.”

During the loaf’s heyday, in the 1920s, bakers tended to use the bulk fermentation process. Cyril explains: “They would bring all the ingredients together, mix them and leave it covered for about 40 minutes. They then expelled the gas that had built up from the yeast and let it rest for a further 20 minutes before making it into the cottage loaf shape.

“Nowadays, of course, we don’t use lard. The industry tends to use vegetable fats and we use activated dough developer. This speeds the process so the bakers are able to mix it and make the cottage loaves straight away. It’s now also common to mix Canadian wheat with local flour to add strength.”

You don’t have to wait until next month to taste the revived loaf. The Birmingham Close Notched Cottage Loaf is sold regularly in the refurbished bakery shop at UCB, which is open to the public. The loaves and cakes on offer vary depending on what the students are working on, so if the Brummie loaf isn’t on the shelves, there is likely to be a choice of other tasty breads, from bloomers and spiky “hedgehogs” to focaccia.

* Ross Jones will be demonstrating how to make the Birmingham Close Notched Cottage Loaf at Taste of Birmingham at 8pm on July 10 and 3pm on July 11.

* For tickets for Taste of Birmingham, and details of the show, go to http://taste.visitbirmingham.com